The country’s automotive and motorcycle industries have maintained the annual growth rate of 9.4 percent, a trend that has been on-going for the past 10 years.
Data collected by the government statistics agency ÔÇô Statistics Botswana (SB) indicate that during the second of the 2016 (Q2:2016), 12,471 vehicles were registered for the first time, which is an increase of 19.3 percent when compared to the previous quarter Q1, 2016. When compared to the same quarter of the previous year, first registrations increased by 14.6 percent.
The Statistics Botswana’s Transport and Infrastructure Stats Brief further shows that the majority of vehicles registered for the first time were passenger cars (74.3 percent), followed by Vans (10.1 percent). Trucks registered for the first time made 5.3 percent, while buses and trailers both made 3.8 percent each. According to the same report, the types of vehicles which contributed the least to first registrations were the tankers/horses and tractors.
Official statistics also provided by the agency shows that the first registrations of vehicles have increased by 136.8 percent since 2006; they stood at 46,045 in 2015 from 19,442 registered in 2006.
“On quarterly basis, the data shows that as we proceed into the year the number of acquired vehicles increases; both years 2014 and 2015 show that first registrations increased from quarter to quarter”, Statistician General Anna Majelantle noted.
Majelantle further noted that first registered vehicles can be brand new, used or re-built and these are only captured at Departments of Road Traffic and Safety (DRTS).
It also emerged from the report that the bulk of the vehicles registered for the first time came from Japan (69.2 percent), followed by South Africa with 21.5 percent. Singapore and Botswana followed with 4.3 and 2.7 percent respectively. Japan registered the highest number of used vehicles constituting 87.3 percent of the total used vehicles. Most of the brand new vehicles were from South Africa constituting 86.2 percent of the total brand new vehicles.
